Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

It's Mr. Brown here with your English lesson, and today we are going to be focusing on writing notes to support us when making a speech in a debate.

We are continuing our work on preparing for a debate and focusing on writing notes, so let's get started.

The learning outcome for today's lesson is, "I can follow a structure to write notes "that will help me deliver a speech in a debate.

"I can follow a structure to write notes "that will help me deliver a speech in a debate." The keywords which will help you with your learning today are point, explanation, proof, summary, notes.

My turn, your turn.

Point, explanation, proof, summary, notes.

And the definitions for these words, a point is an idea or reason to support your opinion.

An explanation means giving reasons to help someone understand an opinion.

Proof, well that refers to the evidence used to support an opinion.

A summary will briefly recap the main points of an argument, and notes are brief, concise, and often abbreviated records of information.

That's what we'll be focusing on a lot today, notes.

Let's take a look at the lesson outline for our lesson today, which is writing notes to support delivering a speech in a debate.

First of all, we'll be looking at writing in note form, how we write notes.

Then we'll move our learning onto turning notes into full sentences.

Writing in note form.

Debates can be lively, engaging, and exciting arguments between two teams. They are often unpredictable, as elements such as rebuttal and points of information are improvised and cannot be planned for beforehand.

This means they are made up on the spot.

You do not know what an opposing team are going to throw at you in terms of points of information or rebuttal, so you can't plan for them.

You have to think on your feet.

This is what makes a debate different to a speech competition.

If everyone was standing up and reading rehearsed speeches, which are all written down, and no one could interact with each other, that wouldn't be a debate.

Nobody in a debate should be reading their speech word for word.

Really important.

We are not just reading a complete, written script.

Instead, they should be using notes that were prepared before the debate to help them.

The notes will be the thing that will keep that person on track, tell them what to say next, but it will not be written word for word.

Notes are a brief and concise, which means very short, they're a brief and concise way to record information.

They are personal to the person reading them and help guide a speaker's speech.

Notes are for that speaker only.

It doesn't matter about handwriting or presentation.

As long as the person who is using the notes can understand them, that's all that matters.

Let's check our understanding.

What should a speaker use to help guide them when making their speech? A, brief notes, B, full sentences or C, pictures.

What should a speaker use to help guide them when they're making their speech, A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

And welcome back.

Okay, so, pictures, you might include some pictures as part of your notes, but you wouldn't use that solely to guide you.

Full sentences, well, no, that would just be too much to you for you to read through, and if you were reading full sentences, that's not debating anyway, so it's brief notes.

That's what we're looking for.

Congratulations if you said A, brief notes.

There are many benefits to having clear notes when making a speech in a debate.

They help to ease nervousness.

The fact that you know you have your notes to rely on that will guide you and support you will ease your nerves when you're standing in front of an audience.

They keep the speaker on track if they lose their way.

Particularly if someone is presenting you with a point of information, you're responding to that, the notes will help guide you back to where you were.

They help a speaker to make eye contact with the audience.

If you were reading a word for word, written down speech, it would be difficult for you to make eye contact with the audience, but notes might just be a few words to help guide you, and then you don't need to look at those notes anymore.

You are just making eye contact with the audience and talking to them.

It keeps the speaker's structure clear.

We follow the PEPS structure when we are making our speeches in debate, point, explanation, proof, summary, and our notes will be broken down into point, explanation, proof, summary, so this will help to keep our structure really strong.

Notes are not full sentences.

They may feature some of the following instead.

Bullet points.

The notes you're seeing me present you with now are bullet points.

Keywords.

Abbreviations, which means words that have been shortened down into shorter versions.

Initialisms. This might be a word that has been broken down or a phrase or several words that have been broken down to use just the first initial of each word.

Short phrases.

Punctuation, such as brackets, dashes, and exclamation marks.

Which two of these may feature in a speaker's notes? A, abbreviations, B, full sentences, C, word for word quotations, or D, bullet points? Which two of these may feature in a speaker's notes? Pause the video now and decide which two for yourself.

Welcome back.

So let's see which two of these may feature in a speaker's notes.

Abbreviations, yes, we might be able to shorten words down into shorter abbreviated versions.

Full sentences, absolutely not.

We will not have full sentences in our notes.

Word for word quotations.

Unlikely you're going to use word for word quotations.

Anything that is word for word or a full sentence will not feature in notes, so that means bullet points is the other correct answer.

Well done if you've got A and D as your correct answers.

Notes need to prompt the speaker to know what to say in as few words as possible.

Let's take a look at an example.

Here you can see my notes.

I've written CHN, which is an abbreviated version of the word children, "CHN should attend AS clubs." What could AS clubs be? Oh, of course, after school, so that's an initialism.

"Children should attend after school clubs," and then I put an equals sign because if they do that, the result will be that it helps working parents.

So very short, not written in a full sentence.

I've got abbreviations, I've got initialisms. Let's see how that would sound as a full sentence.

This is it read by a speaker.

"I believe that all children "should attend after school clubs "because it would be so helpful for working parents "who may struggle to collect their children "at the end of the the regular school day." I have taken my notes and extended them into a full, detailed sentence, and that is exactly what you need to do when you are making a speech in a debate.

"Children should attend afterschool clubs "equals helps working parents." There's the abbreviation for children, CHN.

I've got an initialism for after school, and I've used a short phrase at the end, just "helps working parents." Let me read it to you one more time so you can see.

Look closely at my notes rather than the text that I'm reading.

I'm going to read it through.

You look at my notes and see how I'm guided by those notes.

"I believe that all children should attend afterschool clubs "because it would be so helpful for working parents "who may struggle to collect their children "at the end of the regular school day." Let's check our understanding.

What is CHN representing the word "children" an example of? Is it a short phrase, a keyword, or an abbreviation? What is CHN representing the word "children" an example of, A, B or C? Pause the video and make your choice now.

Welcome back.

So, congratulations if you said C.

It's an abbreviation.

It's not a keyword and it's not a short phrase.

A short phrase would involve several words, so it is an abbreviation.

I've taken the word "children" and I've abbreviated it into just three letters, C-H-N.

Let's have a practise.

Complete the explanation part of the PEPS structure.

Write notes that will support your delivery of a speech for the proposition.

So we're going to practise writing notes as the explanation part of the PEPS structure.

Now, the motion is, "This house would make all children "attend after school clubs." And remember, we are for the pro position.

The point, as I've just used, is, children should attend afterschool clubs because it will help working parents.

You are going to write the explanation.

My proof, and you can see the example there.

I'm going to use my mom as an example, talking about how she had to leave work early and that was difficult because she was often late.

And then I will summarise by saying how much of a huge difference this would make to the whole family.

So, your job is to write the notes for the explanation part of this PEPS structure.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look at an example of the explanation.

"Children should attend afterschool clubs "because it will help working parents." That's my point.

Here's an example of an explanation.

I've put, "Anyone heard of phrase 'working 9 to 5?'" There's a famous phrase called "working 9 to 5." It's an example that lots of people use when they are working regular working hours.

Now, lots of jobs have different hours, but if you had to sum up most jobs, it would be working 9 to 5, so I'm going to use that as an interesting way to lead into my explanation.

I've then got three bullet points.

The first one says, "Many parents work long hours," and I will talk all about how most parents or many parents work long hours.

I'm then gonna link onto the "pressure on families," and I'm going to repeat about this.

I'm gonna really emphasise the pressure that's placed on families, things like pickup time, childcare, affordability.

These are all going to come up in that passage of my explanation.

Then I'm going to talk about the "cost of childcare" and say that it's more than clubs.

The cost of childcare is actually more than clubs.

Those are my notes.

They are personal to me, and I will use them to deliver my speech in front of the audience.

Let's go back to our lesson outline, and we are now moving on to turning notes into full sentences.

So we've written our notes.

We've become familiar with how we might write our notes.

Let's look now at how we're gonna take those and turn 'em into full sentences.

A speaker should aim to have their notes ready with some time to spare before the debate begins.

This time can be used for the speaker to rehearse turning their notes into the full sentences that they'll deliver to the audience.

The time between you finishing writing your notes and starting the debate is precious time.

That is an opportunity for you to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Go through your notes and again, and practise turning them into full sentences.

This is valuable time and will help the speaker to feel more comfortable when they are speaking in front of an audience.

True or false? A speaker should have their notes ready with time to spare before the debate begins so that they can rehearse.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back.

Congratulations if you said true.

It is of course true that time is precious and you must use it.

Let's justify our answer with A, time rehearsing before a debate will mean the speaker will not need to look at their notes at all, or B, time rehearsing before a debate will help the speaker to feel more comfortable.

Pause the video and decide A or B.

Over to you.

And welcome back.

Congratulations if you said B, time rehearsing before a debate will help the speaker to feel more comfortable.

I am now going to show you how I can turn notes into full sentences, and we're going to use the same PEPS notes that we've been building up.

You help me with the explanation, and I'm going to use the proof to show you how to take notes and turn them into full sentences.

Here are my proof notes.

My mom equals leave work early dash difficult, and in brackets, often late.

I'm going to show you now how I will take those notes and turn them into full sentences.

"As evidence, I can even use my own experience.

"My mom worked during the week "and didn't finish work until 5:00 PM.

"After trying lots of different childcare options, "she was forced to reduce her hours "and leave work early to collect me.

"This was often very difficult as she struggled "to get her work completed in time to leave earlier, "and this meant she was often late." So you can see I have taken my very brief notes and turned them into a detailed proof that I can use in my speech.

Let's check your understanding.

Which note supported this full sentence? "This was often very difficult as she struggled "to get her work completed in time to leave earlier "and this meant she was often late." So I'm asking you which note supported that full sentence? Was it A, "my mom?" That was a note.

Was it B, "leave work early?" That was another part of my notes.

Or C, "difficult," and then in brackets, "often late." Which one of those three notes supported that full sentence, A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you were right.

So, the answer is C, "difficult, often late" was all that was needed to make that full sentence.

A really good example of how just three words as a note developed into a full sentence.

And it's time to practise.

I would like you to turn these explanation notes into full sentences, and here are the notes.

"Anyone heard of phrase 'working 9 to 5?'" And then three bullet points.

"Many parents work long hours, "pressure on families," repeat this, "pick up on time, childcare, afford, "cost of childcare more than clubs." Those are the notes that you are using to turn them into full sentences.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back.

Let's see how I took those notes and turned them into full sentences, and maybe yours will be similar.

"Has anyone ever heard "the famous phrase 'working 9 to 5?' "There's a reason the phrase "isn't 'working 9 to 3:30.

' "Many parents work long hours and do not finish in time "for the end of the school day.

"This puts additional pressure on families, "alongside the pressure to arrange childcare, "and of course, the great pressure to afford that childcare.

"To make matters worse, the cost of the childcare "is much more than the cost of afterschool clubs." So you can see I took those notes and expanded them into full sentences.

Let's summarise our learning today.

When making a speech in a debate, a speaker should have written notes to help them.

Notes do not need to be written in full sentences, and notes should not be read word for word.

Well done.

This skill of being able to write notes and turn them into full sentences is an important skill, not just in debating, but in many subjects as you continue through your education.

Great work today.

I will see you soon.